I am happy to report that the first draft for that new novel I was working on is COMPLETE!!
I can’t believe it!
It took me a total of 10 days. đ˛
It just goes to show what good planning and dedicated writing time can achieve. đ
So, Writing Tip PRO:
DO plan out your entire book, from beginning to end.
DO write out the synopsis first thing.
DO set aside dedicated writing time. (At least a good 4 to 5 hour chunk at the same time every day!)
DO decide on your goal finish date and word count total. Then, figure out what that daily word count total is – and work your darndest to achieve and or surpass that daily goal every day.
DO say ‘F*** it!’ to that little voice in your head that says ‘should we really write that?’ and just write whatever you want! (It’s the first draft after all, so the most important thing is just getting those words on the paper/screen.)
DO write The End when you FEEL that it’s the end, even if you haven’t reached the ‘complete book’ word count goal you’d set for yourself at the beginning. This first draft is the skeleton of your book, during edits you can go back through and add things like flesh, hair, and clothes. đ
You read that right, I’ve been working on a new novel these days! đ
I don’t want to give too much away, but I must say that I am very excited about it. I’ve been enjoying it very much, and I’m happy to report that in just 1 week I’ve managed to write over 21,000 words!!!
OK, so what I wanted to pop back on here to say was – I may have been wrong about that whole ‘don’t outline’ stuff thing. Outlining is great! Specifically, writing up the synopsis for your entire book very first thing.
This is something that I haven’t done in the past, and this time around – it has been very helpful! Least of reasons being that literary agents and publishers want a synopsis, and if you’ve never written one for your book then things get very stick very quickly.
I’ll get more into things once I’ve organized things a bit more, but I just wanted to give all of y’all’s an update! đ
But, I’m not meaning it in any kind of weird, possessive, bad kind of way.
I mean it in the – if you love young adult books, and you want to write young adult books – then read a lot of young adult books, and watch a lot of young adult movies and tv shows.
If you love Sci-Fi – then read and watch a ton of Sci-Fi! If you want to write children’s books, then read a lot of children’s books, if you want to write a cookbook, then study as many different cookbooks as you can (and also, you know, cook and bake and stuff!).
If you love movies, and you want to write screenplays – then watch a bunch of movies, critically. Study them, pay attention to the angles and the lighting and the placement of objects and the dialogue, etc. etc. While also, reading scripts, studying scripts, familiarizing yourself with the format, etc.
Writing is just like anything, and everything else, it gets better with practice and study.
Basically, figure out your genre, your type, your niche that you want to write – and then consume as much of that genre, type, niche as you can. The more you read mystery, the better you’ll get at writing mystery. The more you watch action movies, the better you’ll be at writing action movies. The more you bake, the better you’ll be at baking.
But, the biggest part of this advice is, the first time you’re reading or watching something – just enjoy it! Enjoy it that first time, don’t pay attention to the commas, or the allegory, or the whatever other big literary word you can think of, just enjoy it.
Enjoy it and DO pay attention to the way it makes you feel, remember the moments it made you laugh or cry, remember the times it blindsided you with a twist. Then, the second, third, and fifteenth time you read/watch it you’ll notice HOW they made you feel/think those things without even having to try.
Oh also, a note about picking a genre, type, or niche – don’t stress about that part. I know, me personally I write what I love, but then when I try to define it I get bogged down in the “aaagh, it’s too many things! It’s horror, it’s fantasy, it’s romance, it’s comedy, it’s ya, it’s sci-fi, it’s contemporary, aaaagh I don’t know!!” So, yeah, don’t get stressed about that part.
Just read/watch what you love, enjoy it, read/watch it again, study it, write it, and before you know it – boom! You’ll have a book/script written!
I hope this was coherent!đ If it wasn’t, I apologize!
Ok, so you’ve established a daily writing habit, you’ve kept you’re writing space special (but flexible) and you’ve curated a playlist that gets you into the write (see what I did there?) mood – but sometimes the plot just won’t work.
It goes on strike, it quits flat out, it slips into a coma and has to be fed on a feeding tube!
So, what then?
Well ladies and gents, this is the time to go and buckle yourself into your car (or hovercraft, whatever you fancy) and go for a drive! Go to the country, get yourself a drink, maybe some greasy food, go drive around in circles in an empty parking lot – whatever you want!
I’ve had many MANY breakthroughs while on my daily commute and many more on just doing some mind-numbing, endless, aimless driving.
It’s great, because it demands your attention (cause otherwise you could die) and offers you a ton of new colors and scents and sounds that will serve as a smelling salt of sorts for your passed-out plot.
So, if you’re reading this blog (thank you btw!!!) because you’re procrastinating on your novel – then this is your wakeup call to get out and go for a drive! đ
This is one that I read from a writing advice book several years ago (I forget the name), and it’s a good one (but it can go wrong too, and I’ll explain how).
A lot of writing is emotional and “vibe-al”, so if the mood isn’t right – well then, that character that we were planning on killing off might just marry the main love interest, or the whole thing might turn into an expose on the private lives of apples.
So, maintaining the right mood is crucial to maintaining the proper flow of the story.
This one messed me up a bit too though, because it made me very inflexible. I had developed the habit of writing out at cafe’s – well, when a global pandemic strikes that can really disrupt your flow.
Even without a pandemic though, if you’re writing in public maybe somebody took that window seat that you really like, or the barista’s are out of the syrup that you always take in your coffee, or that spicy food you ate earlier is just really not sitting right with you and you have to keep packing everything up to use the public restroom.
So, keep your writing space special – but be flexible too. đ
Wait, don’t click away yet! This is a really good genuine tip, I promise! Without this tip you won’t be able to accomplish the #1 writing rule.
I’m not saying ‘limit yourself’ as in ‘limit your imagination’ or ‘limit how good your are/can be’.
No.
I mean – Limit Yourself.
Give yourself a SET TIME.
A certain amount of pages.
A minimum (and maximum!) daily word count.
Set. A. Limit. (you can make it the sky if you want!)
Trust me, with this tip you will be able to achieve the #1 writing rule of WRITE EVERY DAY.
Cause, let’s face it – writing every day sounds easy enough (you know, even getting a few words down on the page is good work), but what about when we’re reeeeeally tired? Or, we’ve got too much laundry to do? Or the ideas just aren’t coming?
Well, if you LIMIT YOURSELF – telling yourself that you’ll only write for 20 minutes a day, or 1 page a day, or 500 words a day – then suddenly, that daunting task of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) becomes a doable feat.
Even is you only write for 5 minutes, or a single sentence, that’s something and it keeps the momentum going so that when the muse strikes – it will strike a lot sooner and more often if you’ve kept up the daily habit.
Also though – limit yourself on stopping after reaching your maximum word count, page number, time limit. You’ll get a lot more done if you write a little something every day then if you burn out in one intense night (just like with working out, eating right, praying daily or any other habit).
So – let’s make it a HABIT and remember – WRITE DAILY – LIMIT YO’ SELF! đ
If I were to say that “Disney is just Shakespeare!” you’d be like, “I know, Lion King, duh.”
But I’m not just talking about The Lion King here.
I’m talking about the entirety of Disney, I’m talking about what makes a Disney film a Disney film, you know the thing that whenever there’s a major cliche moment people are like “What is this, a Disney film?”
That, my friends, is the Shakespearean Formula that I’m talking about, and today we’re going to talk about The Tempest.
In the Tempest we have the magical lead Prospero (a banished for-all-intents-and-purposes ‘good guy’, and the father of the female lead Miranda). Prospero makes me think of Merlin from Sword in the Stone or Mushu from Mulan (idk maybe you have a better disney comparison that I just can’t think of) – he is the main character, but in the Disney movie version it would ‘technically’ be Miranda that was the main character. Regardless, Prospero is the magical lead that was banished, that has a score to settle, and that is driving the plot.
The female lead Miranda (a beautiful innocent young maiden who’s never even seen a man before, aside from her father and a gargoyle like creature). Reminds me of Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle, Cinderella and basically every Disney princess out there. She’s lovely, innocent and kind but also isolated away from everyone and everything until she meets Ferdinand.
The male lead Ferdinand (the handsome, kind, but not-too-deep-and-still-has-a-lot-to-learn prince). He reminds me of every classic Disney prince.
(We all agree that Prince Phillip is the best Disney prince, right? No need to even discuss!)
The villains and bewitched-by-the villains in Alonso (the king and father of Ferdinand and the bewitched one) Antonio (the evil brother of Prospero who’s just backstabbing people left and right) and Sebastian (the brother of Alonso who’s so ready to backstab). I mean – think of any Disney villain and boom these guys are it.
Then, we have the comical but diabolical but in-the-end-harmless characters in Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano (the gargoyle-like servant of the magical lead, and two drunks from the royal shipwreck). This trio provides much needed comic relief with a dash of danger – very similar to your eels from The Little Mermaid, or the hyenas from The Lion King, or Lucifer the cat and the evil stepsisters from Cinderella – all groups that were scary sure, but more funny then anything else and in the end none of their plans came to fruition.
And last, but not least, we have the literal fairy godmother character in Ariel (Prospero’s spirit helper that does Prospero’s bidding). He’s your Genie from Aladdin, your Fairy Godmother from Cinderella, your Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas, and so on and so on. Without him, the magic doesn’t get done, a lot of the comedy is lost, and the ‘hero’ of the story remains at the bottom.
It’s not just the characters though. It’s the structure too. It’s everything really, but I’m blanking on terms here.
To break it down, in The Tempest there’s a big event that happens (the storm), just like a lot of Disney movies, (Tarzan, Frozen, Pocahontas are just a few that start out with a big storm) and then after the wreck the Prince finds and falls in love with the Princess, the bad guys plot and scheme to get rid of their leaders and in the end the magical wizard saves the day and there’s a wedding.
The big scene that I noticed that made me go “Oh c’mon!” is there’s literally a ‘date scene’ for Miranda and Ferdinand where, after they’ve already gotten engaged after like 3 hours, they watch a musical performance put on by these magical creatures (just like Kiss the Girl, Can you feel the love tonight?, So this is Love, that one from Tangled with the lanterns on the water!) and they fall even more in love.
Anyway – I’m getting a little lost here – my point is, I think that that’s why Disney movies are so famous. Walt Disney copied the formula of one of the most famous playwrights of all time, William Shakespeare.
Wait a minute! Walt – William – is there a little similarity there? đ Oh, I think there is! (*cough* John Candy reference *cough*)
It sounds pretty extreme but truly, if you’re ever working on a project and you’re stuck or you’re just not sure how to take it to the next level then – CUT WHAT YOU LOVE.
That doesn’t mean anything crazy or Hitchcock, not at all!
It means look at your work and take your favorite scene or character or even plot-point, the one that you keep re-reading, re-editing, re-working, re-living and – cut it.
Right out!
Pretend that it doesn’t exist and continue the story from that point on. If you’re really lucky, then when you’re going back through and editing everything, cleaning it all up and fine-tuning the rough spots you’ll be able to re-insert that favorite scene back into the story in an even better, more special, more beautiful way.
I did it. I was stuck, about 90 pages into my story and I just kept re-working those first 90 pages, fixing the spelling and the grammar and changing the locations around and the characters names, but never progressing any further.
Then, while I was mindlessly browsing the internet one day, I came across this bit of advice from Joss Whedon, whom you might know as the creator of the cult classic Firefly, or as the writer of the first Avengers film.
I was shocked and appalled at the thought of cutting my favorite scene, the part that I loved the most, that excited me and made me happy, out of my story, but I did it, and then suddenly the rest of the book flowed on its own out onto the page.
And, I was lucky enough to be able to go back and fit my favorite bits back in later. đ
So, if you’ve got a creative project that you’re stuck in, give it a try, cut what you love, and see what happens!
I feel like that is the first, last and only bit of writing advice that anyone ever really gives.
Show donât tell.
“Youâre writing a book? Remember, show donât tell.”
“Oh, youâre working on a screenplay? Remember, show donât tell.”
“Yeah, what youâve got here is great and all but, remember, show donât tell.”
Which is awesome, except, I often found myself scratching my head feeling like – how? What even IS showing? What’s the difference between telling and giving the audience vital information? And, after that HOW do I find the perfect balance of Show & Tell?
Well, Iâve found the perfect example of what SHOW is and what TELL is.
Bellarke vs. Becho.
Bellarke (above)Becho (above)
In CW’s The 100, Bellarke is, was and always will be the main superior ship of Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin from episode 1. If youâre like me, then you know that there was no going back from the moment that Clarke fell into that pit in episode 2 and Bellamy caught her hand. You know the one Iâm talking about ;). No going back. None.
And yet, we all know how things ended⌠donât mind me, Iâm just going to go and scream into a pillow for a few minutes.
Ok, Iâm back.
So, Bellarke. Yeah, pretty amazing ship. A true OTP if there ever was one. But, they were never quote un-quote CANON.
A couple that WAS canon was Becho, who, as you might recall, became a couple between seasons 4 and 5 during the space hiatus. Bellamy was in space, Clarke was on the ground, he thought she was dead, Echo was there – end of story.
So, hereâs where the SHOW vs. TELL comes in.
In the show, they constantly had to tell us BECHO IS A THING. Until the final season (which I think we can all agree is not part of the real show) we did not get a single flashback to Spacekruâs time on the Arc. Then in season 7 we got a single scene where Echo and Bellamy shared their first kiss. It was almost like the writers realized âoh, maybe people donât like this ship, because we havenât SHOWN them any of their romantical development!â and so they forced it in there at the last moment.
Before that scene, however, all we ever got was BECHO IS A THING, OK, DEAL WITH IT! Lines like, âwe met in a cage.â âwho knows more about forgiveness then us, right?â âIt took you 2 (or was it 3? Honestly, I canât remember because I died of an eyeroll when I heard it) years to even talk to me.â or something like that, were all that we ever got to validate their relationship.
Now, more honesty, I originally, back in season 2 when Bellamy and Echo first met, didnât hate the idea of the two of them becoming a couple. But then, they went and really (in my opinion) ruined their relationship over the course of the next two seasons (showing us that Echo was waaaaay more into Roan btw!), only to come back in season 5 with the two of them dating.
OK, fine. Then show it!
Show us the scenes of Bellamy being sad about Clarke and his sister, Octavia, and show us Echo comforting him. Show us scenes of them fighting, arguing and struggling to live together up there on the Arc and then show them softening towards one another. Give us a scene where Bellamy rages at Echo for causing the deaths of Gina, Clarke and trying to kill Octavia (multiple times, Iâm pretty sure) and then she breaks down in tears apologizing for what sheâs done and confessing that she loves him and would do anything to earn his forgiveness. Show me something, ANYTHING.
But, no.
All we got was – BECHO IS A THING. DEAL WITH IT.
What they did show us was Bellarke.
Bellarke being a team. Bellarke needing each other, saving each other, caring for each other, writing each otherâs names down on the bunker list, forgiving each other over and over and over again. Bellarke fighting, breaking down, crying, willing to let the entire human race die for the other – and then, being reunited, the hugs (aaaaalll of the hugs!!!), eye-banging each other all the time, the looks of regret, the almost disgust on Clarkes face when she sees Becho for the first time – the list of all of the Bellarke romantic relationship that they SHOW us is ENDLESS. There are too many moments to list, too many glances, touches, remarks from other characters, hidden expressions, half-said truths, etcâŚ
In summation, in âShow Donât Tellâ the writers of the 100 TOLD us that BECHO IS A THING but they SHOWED us that BELLARKE IS A THING. DEAL WITH THAT.
So, the next time that youâre confused and youâre not sure if you are showing or telling in your writing just ask yourself, are you giving the reader Becho, or Bellarke? And if youâre giving Bellarke – can you please give us a better ending?? Please??!! I seriously, donât think Iâll ever get over them and how robbed we all were.
A Writers View 